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Friday, October 25, 2019

Disney World Day Three: Magic Kingdom

Wednesday was our third day at the parks and we were back at Magic Kingdom - the park opened early at 8am that day but also had Extra Magic Hours for resort guests and due to the early opening that meant those were at 7am. We decided to just go for it, get up early to beat the crowds then spend the afternoon back at the Grand Floridian and it was totally worth it!

Luckily this was our best weather day which worked well since this was the day we were doing the most. It had rained overnight and cooled things off a little bit and was also primarily overcast which made it more comfortable.

We left the hotel about 6:45am and the Magic Kingdom was the next stop on the monorail so were were there quick and walked into the park right about 7. There were staff members inside once you got past Main Street to scan your band and make sure you were staying on property.

My brother and Derek went right to get on Seven Dorf's Mine Train and basically walked on. My parents, Tatum and I did Peter Pan's Flight (since he slept through it the other day) and It's a Small World, which continued to be his favorite while the boys were on their ride.

We had a fast pass for Winnie the Pooh later in the morning but decided to just go ahead and do it now since we were right there - I'm glad we did because there was a little play area for kids as we got into line.

At this point it was just about 8am and the park was about to open - we grabbed a couple pictures on the side of the castle before the stampede of park goers went by. We went over to Main Street to quickly get a couple pictures in front of the castle while it was quiet then it was back to Fantastyland, where we spent most of our time.

We went right back to Enchanted Tales with Belle and had about an 8 minute wait - Tatum wasn't part of the show but he bravely went up to meet Belle at the end. Next we went back over to Under the Sea since the boys hadn't been on it and it was one of my favorites. Things were still pretty quiet so we waited about 10 minutes for Dumbo and then went over to do the Prince Charming Carousel which we hadn't done yet.

We had a 9:20 reservation at Be Our Guest so we took a break for a bit - it was a cute setting and the quick service food comes out fast (if you're wanting to really take advantage of the quiet early park time then I'd do a later breakfast or wait for lunch)! Tatum actually fell asleep so we boxed his breakfast and he ate it in the stroller a bit later - go with the flow!

Since we moved around our first fast pass, I picked up one for the Tomorrowland Speedway since we'd be over that way anyway from 9:40-10:40 for the Tomorrowland Speedway and we just made it in time. Tatum was measured but was just barely tall enough to ride and loved steering Derek's car - I rode with my brother and my parents followed behind.

We did our Buzz Light Year's Space Spin fast pass right after the speedway as soon as our fast pass opened up. We all enjoyed that one and Tatum loved it! There was a short line to meet Buzz after and since Tatum loves Toy Story we did that. He kept saying "Buzz, Buzz."We made it over to Main Street at 11:30 on the dot just a few minutes before the Move it! Shake it! Mousekedance it! Parade made it's way down the street and like the other parades, it was a favorite for Tatum.

At this point we were pretty much done with rides - with Tatum's younger age we didn't really want to wait more than 20 minutes for anything. We jumped in line for the Donald and Goofy Meet and Great which was about a 20 minute wait but in a nice air conditioned area. After that we grabbed some snacks - Mickey popsicles and ice cream before we headed out for the afternoon.

By 1pm we were back at the hotel and into our bathing suits ready to relax. There was a chance of an afternoon shower so we got Tatum right to the pool and got lunch there - the others had a nicer lunch inside the main building at the Grand Floridian Cafe. We had about two solid hours of playing at the pool and then Tatum fell asleep in his stroller - it actually started to rain as we were leaving (and stopped before we left to go back to the park) so the timing worked out perfectly - I was so thankful!Tatum ended up sleeping almost two hours - his best nap of the trip - so we rested, packed up a little bit and got ready for the evening.

We had a quick drink upstairs at the Enchanted Rose before grabbing the monorail back over to the Magic Kingdom for dinner. We got back to the parks a little before dinner for our final fast pass - a Meet and Great with Mickey Mouse.

We were in and out of that pretty quickly so we had some time to check out the castle lit up for night and do any shopping we wanted - I took Tatum's Mickey Ears to get monogrammed and it's probably my favorite souvenir now - he also loved wearing them.When my brother and I were little, whenever we went to Disney my parents would take us to Tony's Town Square Restaurant so that's what we picked for dinner.

We originally had planned to stay at the park for the fireworks but nobody felt like dealing with the monorail traffic after and once we saw the crowds we knew we were right and luckily a boat was pulling in so we took the ferry back to the hotel and got back a few minutes before the show so we only had to wait about 10 minutes. The boat launch was a great spot to watch - there were a bunch of people there. They loop the music in so it was a great way to watch - all the songs were so cute - Tatum ended up falling asleep about halfway through. We watched the boat parade on the water and then headed up to bed!